Publishing giant Meredith Corporation is partnering with Iowa State University to add to its journalism department offerings. Meredith spokesman Art Sluzark says the new partnership can steer bright students to jobs in writing and publishing. The company’s going to set up an “apprentice” program to bring five of I-S-U’s top journalism students to Meredith to work 15-20 hours a week for a couple consecutive semesters, and they’ll earn four hours of college credit for it. Sluzark says the publishing company will also benefit from the collaboration. The company reaches top students early, exposes them to its kind of “service journalism” and may link the publisher to future employees among the best of today’s students. Meredith will contribute 30-thousand dollars to remodel the offices of the I-S-U student magazine “Ethos” and hire a coordinator to work in that office with the apprentices in the new program. Students say while they’re glad for their academic learning, nothing beats work in the field, and by giving them hands-on experience he thinks students will benefit and so will Meredith. An “electronic journalism” lab at the Ethos magazine office at Iowa State will allow interns and other top journalism students to do “editorial outsourcing” work for which the publisher will pay them an hourly rate.
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